Silhouette CAMEO winner and the most awesome Black Friday sale ever!

First of all, drumroll please ...

Congratulations to jacquickelly, lucky number 24!  You are the winner of the Silhouette CAMEO giveaway!  Thanks to all for entering, and especially to Silhouette America for such a fun prize.  I feel like Oprah every time I get to give one of these babies away.

 

For everyone else who is dying to get their hands on a Silhouette cutting machine, look no further than this year's Black Friday sale*.  Silhouette has never offered such good deals, so whether you are looking to buy your first machine or just stock up on supplies, now is the time.

Here's the skinny on all the deals ... visit the Black Friday sale page and use my promo code, JILL, at checkout to have access to the following sales:

1. A Silhouette CAMEO®, Silhouette Studio® Designer Edition Software, a dust cover (the color is decided by Silhouette), a $25 download card, a hook, a scraper, a spatula, and a pick-me-up® tool for $229.99. Retail price for all of this would total $406.93 (over 40% savings!)
2.  A Silhouette Portrait®, Silhouette Studio® Designer Edition Software, a dust cover (the color is decided by Silhouette), a $25 download card, a hook, a scraper, a spatula, and a pick-me-up® tool for $129.99. Retail price for all of this would total $286.93 (over 40% savings!)
3. A Silhouette CAMEO®, a Silhouette Portrait®, and two $25 download cards for $299.99. That’s right: If you buy a Silhouette CAMEO® at full price, you get two $25 download cards and a Silhouette Portrait® ABSOLUTELY FREE! Retail price for all of this would be $406.93 (over 40% savings!)
4. 40% off consumable products at silhouetteamerica.com. This excludes machines, subscriptions, download and gift cards. Cannot be combined with any other offers. Rain checks not available.
5. FREE SHIPPING on orders over $25.

The Black Friday Sales are available now through December 8th.  :)

Umm....hello.  These sales are crazy town.  Tell your mom, sister, grandpa, best friend, husband.  I hope you all get your Silhouette fix this holiday season!

Have the happiest of Thanksgivings!  If things calm down at my place and I stop getting puked on by my baby, I will totally update this post with some fun Thanksgiving project pictures.  :)

*this post contains affiliate links

Cora's birthday carnival brunch

Baby Cora just turned two!  I guess that means she is not a baby anymore ... but we can just go on pretending, right?  The carnival theme came about because 1) when Cora arrived, our lives turned into kind of a three ring circus, and 2) I really wanted to reuse those decorations from Oscar's school carnival.  :) 

Of course, I used my favorite tool, Silhouette CAMEO for most of the decorations (banners, labels, vinyl, food picks, etc).  There are a few days left to enter the giveaway, and your odds are pretty good!  Also, I'll be posting the Black Friday deals on Thanksgiving day this year, so watch for that.  This sale is going to be the best they've ever offered, so you won't want to miss it.

I have to say, serving brunch was the easiest party food yet.  We skipped the cake all together and just served mini-doughnuts.

 For the rest of the spread, we had mini quiche, croissants, sausage, tiny yogurt cups, little pancake stacks, and apple fritter bread (which is crazy delicious, and you should totally try the recipe!).

The pancakes were my favorite.

But you know what was really my favorite from the party?  This girl.  She is a total nutter, and we love her to bits.

I made her a Geranium Tunic using the Children on Parade fabric by Sarah Jane.  I've been hanging onto it for a while, so I don't know how easy it is to find now.  It is one of my favorite fabrics ever!

So all it all, it was just a really fun morning where we ate ourselves sick and clowned around.

 Happy birthday, Cora!

happy thanksgiving!

Today I am thankful for my family, especially healthy babies, modern medicine, and my sister-in-law's delicious chocolate pie.

Speaking of babies ... remember how I just had one?  Without further ado, I'd like to introduce Cora Margaret:

Cora is such a peaceful, sweet baby.  We just love her!  I was so worried about Ruby (a.k.a. "the brute") using her muscles on the baby, but so far it is just hugs and kisses all around.   Oscar, of course, is smitten as well  (it probably helps that she looks just like him).

We had a few hiccups in the hospital, so it has taken me longer to get back to the computer.  Between needing to recover and the holidays coming up, posting is going to be really light around here for the foreseeable future.  But can you blame me?  We are all super busy snuggling Cora.

For Thanksgiving, I crocheted Cora a silly turkey drumstick hat:

Funny, right?  After seeing it on Pinterest, I just couldn't resist!   I made up the the pattern as I went along and didn't write it down, so I don't have instructions to share with you.   You might be able to find a crochet turkey leg pattern online, and just add it to a simple hat.  After the holiday, I think I might take the drumsticks off and add some teddy bear ears for a more useful everyday hat.

At first it seemed like Cora really liked it:

But then she started making sour faces at me:

One-week-olds are so fickle.  :)

In completely unrelated news ...

I have a Black Friday Deal to share with all you Silhouette fans.  Silhouette is having a great Black Friday sale where everything in the online store (except the CAMEO, subscriptions, download cards, and gift cards) is 30% off.  You can get an extra 10% off using the online code, JILL, for a total of 40% off!

Also, the CAMEO will not be found in the regular online store, but you can find it on the "secret" Black Friday Page.  The Cameo is not 30% off, and my extra code will not apply, but it will be nicely discounted. The Black Friday Cameos are expected to sell out fast.

All shapes will be 50% off.

The Black Friday sale starts at 12:01 a.m. (MST) on Friday, November 25th.  Codes will be valid through the 28th.

Happy shopping!

silhouette black friday deals and portrait giveaway winner

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  At the last minute, I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out these cute "Mayflower" ships for our family dinner.  The little place card sails are held upright with a toothpick stuck in a pumpkin muffin.  Cute and delicious!  My favorite combo.

I'm sure you've gotten the message by now, but I really love Silhouette projects.  Since learning about it a few years ago, I have made SO many projects (the collage below does not include them all).  It literally changed the way I do crafts.   I love it for making custom gifts, party decorations, home decor, preschool or church projects, and I often use the design software to create graphics and invitations.

If you have been thinking about getting a Silhouette Cameo or Portrait, or you're already a convert and just need to stock up on supplies, the deals don't get any better than during the Black Friday Sale. (I'm due for a fresh blade and cutting mat, myself.)

From Friday, November 23rd - Friday, November 30th, use the online promo code JILL to get the following discounts:

• 1 Silhouette CAMEO, plus a copy of Silhouette Studio Designer Edition (MSRP $349.98) for $229.99
• 1 Silhouette Portrait for $179.99
• 40% off at silhouetteamerica.com (discount excludes Silhouette CAMEO, Silhouette Portrait, downloads, download cards, subscriptions, and gift cards).

Offers expire November 30th, 2012 and rain checks are not available.

Congratulations, danielle!  You are the winner of the Silhouette Portrait Giveaway.  Please email your contact information to homemadebyjill@gmail.com to claim your prize.

Silhouette SD Giveaway! (CLOSED)

I was over the moon when Silhouette contacted me about doing a second giveaway. It was love at first cut when I tried it for the first time last June, and now it easily ranks in my top 5 favorite crafting tools. I use it for everything - party decorations, wrappings for baked goods, gifts, gift tags, clothes for my kids, etc, etc. It is already coming in really handy (and saving me money) this holiday season for decorations and gifts.

Here are the Silhouette projects I've had up my sleeve lately:

I cut fall leaves to attach as gift tags to yummy pumpkin bread loaves - a great way to dress up your baked goods for gift giving and customizable to any occasion or season.  I cut my leaves nice and large, so there was plenty of room to write a note on the back.

The women's group at my church made 30 sets of Christmas Advent Blocks, using instructions I found at How Does She?  We mod podged the blocks with cute holiday papers and applied vinyl numbers and lettering that I cut on my Silhouette.  At a cost of only $2 per set, this makes a great small gift for just about anyone on your list.

 My friend, Sonja, recently threw a Sesame Street/Elmo themed party for her daughter's second birthday.  She loves paper crafts and was painstakingly cutting out all her Elmo decorations by hand, until I reminded her of my magical machine that cuts whatever you want.  In no time, we had cut alphabet and number garlands and some Oscar the Grouch, saving her time and money.

My Oscar was appropriately grouchy at the beginning of the party until he was allowed to wander off with one of the table decorations (which was filled with "Dorothy"goldfish crackers).

Did you know you can import pictures from the internet or your camera to the Silhouette cutter?  You aren't limited to the (thousands of) images in the online store.  Which means you can cut anything you want.  Which is awesome.

I made lots of onesies over the summer using the Heat Transfer material, and now I am using it to make custom t-shirts for Christmas gifts.   I applied this dinosaur silhouette to one of Oscar's shirts - the tail wraps around to the back.

If you want to make your favorite guy a gift this Christmas, the Heat Transfer is a great option.  It is easy to do and looks so professional.  The hardest part is just picking the design he'll love most!

Ok ... so my new favorite thing to make with the Silhouette is temporary tattoos.  My nephews are all getting silly mustache finger tattoos in their stockings this year.

You actually don't need the Silhouette cutter to make the tattoos - you can buy the tattoo paper, print from your home office, and cut them out with scissors. So if you're looking for the perfect stocking stuffer for your Justin Bieber-crazed tween, or tough to please 9-year old boy, some fun temporary tattoos might be your perfect solution. 

If you still aren't convinced this is the best cutter out there, here are some links to my past projects:

Baby onesies and baby shower decor pantry organization birthday party decor custom t-shirts

So ... on to the giveaway! One very lucky winner will receive their very own Silhouette SD Machine (a $299.99 value). The package includes:

• a Silhouette machine
• Software for Windows XP/Vista, Mac
• Power cable, USB cable
• 2 Cutting mats (one for thick media, one for thin media)
• One cutting blade
• $10 gift card to the Silhouette Online Store

This giveaway is now closed.  Thanks for entering!

You know you want it!  Let's keep things simple ... there is only ONE way to enter: 

Browse the Silhouette website and check out all the amazing things this one machine does.  Then come back and leave a comment on this post by November 26th telling me how you'd use your new favorite craft tool for the holidays.

The winner will be randomly selected and announced on November 29th.  This giveaway is available only to U.S. residents (sorry - international readers!  There are customs issues with the blade.  I'll have other prizes available to you later in the week).  

There are three little rules:

1. There is only one entry per person.  If you accidentally enter more than once, please delete your duplicate comment (you will likely have to scroll to the end of the comments to view yours).
2. Make sure I have a way to contact you!  Either your profile must link back to a public blog, or you must leave me an email address to contact you.  Anonymous comments (with no contact information) will be deleted.
3. You can only win one Silhouette.  If you have won a Silhouette here or anywhere else in blogland, you are no longer eligible.

I'm also excited to announce a special Cyber Monday deal!

It is only valid on Monday, November 29, 2010, starting at 4 am and ending at midnight the same day.

Here's the deal ...the Silhouette will be sold for $199 (originally $299). Silhouette America has NEVER sold these cutters for this cheap! This is the newest version with more capabilities and newest technology - the Silhouette is now Mac compatible.

It gets better ... the Cyber Monday deal will also include:

1 Roll of Cream vinyl ( $7.99)
1 Roll of transfer paper ( $7.99)
1 Home decor CD (Value $55)
Total ($70.98)

All for only $199 - almost $200 in savings!

I'll have the discount code posted bright and early next Monday at 4 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. In the meantime, leave a comment and keep your fingers crossed to win!

a very halloween birthday

I'm sure by now you are all sick of hearing about Halloween, but I had to share a few more photos of Oscar & Audrey's double birthday party.  My friend, Sonja, and I put so much work into it, but it was such a great time!  Both of the birthday kids were in Halloween heaven.

I wish I had taken more photos of the decorations!  Sonja's house looked awesome - she made several cute felt buntings, including the bats pictured above.  There were also decorated lanterns, lots of bat silhouettes, and a gigantic yarn spiderweb that covered an entire wall in her hallway.

I made a simple cake (vanilla with blackberry filling and chocolate frosting), and decorated the top with cardstock cutouts (made with my Silhouette) to look like a haunted house, or "house of spooks" as Oscar called it.  Sonja made yummy nutella mini cupcakes, decorated with the cupcake toppers.  Sonja's husband, Jake, cooked up a delicious dinner of pulled pork burritos with all the fixings, and we also had clementines dressed up as jack-o-lanterns, spooky mummy sugar cookies on a stick, cookie bones, and brownies with cute jack-o-lantern wrappers (there was no shortage of treats).

Since the kids were mostly 3-years an under, we kept the activities simple.  After handing out the treat bags Sonja and I made, we sent them on a mini trick-or-treat to the doors inside her house.  The kids received stickers, spider rings, a piece of candy, and a pumpkin-wrapped brownie.  Afterward, we sent them outside to break open a pinata to fill their bags with a few more treats.

We ended the evening with cake, of course.  After Audrey beat Oscar to the punch of blowing out the candles, we re-lit them at least five more times.  I hope they got all their wishes in.

You can find many of the ideas and tutorials from projects mentioned above linked on my Halloween Party Pinterest Board.

halloween costume parade

Happy Halloween!

We had such a fun time at Oscar's birthday party this weekend - I have tons of photos, but I still need to go through them, so I'll share party details later this week.

Meanwhile, want to see all of our costumes? 

I made Jared a quick and easy robot costume by covering a large cardboard box in silver duct tape and cutting a bunch of vinyl decals with my Silhouette machine.  He really hates dressing up for Halloween, but he was sweet to humor Oscar (and me) for the party.

You've already seen Oscar's pumpkin costume.  It was too hot on Saturday to stuff him full, but we might try that for trick or treating tonight.  He was such a happy birthday boy.  The ear-to-ear smiles he wore all night made all the party prep worth it.

I made a pregnant pumpkin shirt with a simple freezer paper stencil and the new Martha Stewart Glitter Paint.   Not an elaborate costume, I know, but it was about all I could muster and it made Oscar happy.  We felt like a pretty cute pair of pumpkins. 

Here's our happy gang all together.  Ruby was Wonder Woman, and I am thrilled with how her dress came out.   She even wore the accessories happily, which was a miracle.   I'll post more on her outfit later.

I also made the costume for our friend Audrey (Oscar's party companion), as her birthday present.  She loves Beauty and the Beast, so I made her a Belle dress using the Crafterhours tutorial again.  Her baby sister wore Ruby's old Belle dress, so we had two little princesses running/crawling around the party.

I hope you have a very happy and safe Halloween!  Don't make yourself sick with candy.  :)

Here are the kids' costumes from previous years:

2010:  Skeleton and Baby Aerobics Instructor
2009:  Bluebird

mini cupcake toppers

The only thing cuter than mini cupcakes are mini cupcakes with mini cupcake toppers (how many times do you think I can fit the word "mini" into one sentence?). 

I used my Silhouette to cut these little cuties out from black cardstock and scrapbook paper, so other than gluing the pieces together, there was very little work involved.  All of the shapes came from the Silhouette online store.

Each topper is simply taped to a toothpick and will be popped into a mini cupcake for the kids' Halloween birthday party this weekend.

My friend Sonja and I are a bad combo for party planning, because we tend to feed off of each other's craziness.  Even this afternoon, we were discussing ideas for more things to do and make (with the party only days away) ... we have to take turns reminding each other to calm down and focus on the current to-do list.  Do you have a friend like that?  It makes me laugh.

p.s.  Just a reminder that the promo for the new Silhouette Cameo ends Monday, Oct. 31st.  Use the code JILL to get a Cameo and your choice of a free starter kit.